Sunday, July 10, 2016

The ascent of conservative capitalism- in the US under Reagan and George Bush Sr. and in the UK under Thatcher- meant tax cuts, the erosion of labor unions, and new regulations imposed on the economy. These economic regime changes were based on the mainstream theoretical presupposition that what we really needed to do was create an economic environment conducive to unbarred corporate innovation and investment and eagerly accept international policy which, together, opened the proverbial floodgates allowing neoliberalism to leak all over the globe. What a mess.

I would take issue with the phase, "allowing neoliberalism to leak all over the globe." The reality is that this was the intention, and it was imposed internationally by the Anglo-American interests, that is to say, the international finance and translational corporatism the rule the US and UK, along with the deep state bent on global hegemony.

"Allow neoliberalism to leak all over the globe" is not correct way to characterize this. This suggests the natural order that is supposed to arise spontaneously with liberalization, deregulation and privatization, whereas the reality is that neoliberalism was imposed domestically and internationally through oligarchic, plutocratic and militaristic rule masquerading as democracy and government of, by and for the people, in which the elected government acts in the interest of all and spreads the benefits of liberty internationally.

HAH, I love it. Nothing short of a revolution has occurred. 10 or 15 years ago this stuff would have sentenced an economist to margins of heterodoxy. But the GFC caused a mass extinction of the old economic cockroaches and now this is mainstream stuff.

These bright young creatures are emboldened by their success and the self-inflicted demise of the old guard. But it's easy to criticize the failures others; it's difficult to lead and build functional systems; I hope these kids coming up approach their task with greater humility and make a greater effort to understand and respond to criticism than the outgoing economists did. The left is even more prone to wild quixotic adventures than the failed right, and the right will be back, those old cockroaches are just hiding under rocks waiting for their moment.

Policy-making is still dominated by neoclassics and (neo)liberalism shills in their various forms of liberalism (be either pro-piracy finance capitalism like in the UK and USA or beggar-thy-neighbor race-to-the-bottom ordoliberalism of Germany).

I may die waiting for that to happen. The right has not left from where it matters (positions of authority, not academic circles).

Agree, Ignacio. It's early days still but simply getting economists educated in less destructive methods than the old orthodoxy is the first step; now these kids will go on and become professors, teachers, political appointees, civil leaders and other positions of power and they will change the world (and hopefully economics curiculum everywhere). But I take your point, it doesn't change everything. There are more people who continue to learn orthodox economics and believe it is relevant and has a useful purpose in analyzing the economy; The same old people who own and control the system haven't changed and they aren't going anywhere.

"And when their policies inevitably fail and it’s time to place blame, who bears the brunt of it all? Immigrants."

They reveal themselves here as flunk-outs of real STEM fields ... probably 1500ish SATs... probably did better on their ACTs...

Even Bill is starting to get this immigrant issue here the other day: "The Eurozone is still crippled by its flawed monetary design and in more recent years the migrant issue has come over the top to reinforce this malaise"

Immigration policy matters in this... you cant have an already USD starved economy and let a bunch of illegal immigrants pour in to top that off...

The "immigrant" issue in the EU is total BS. There are almost no "immigrants" in the EU. The people from MENA are refugees and not immigrants. The ploy is to point them as immigrants so as to avoid the moral issue of helping refugees. This is moral sewer for Europe. Racist through and through.

The other so-called "immigrants" in eu are the result of open border based on Schengen. They are not immigrants either, just free flow of workers in the zone, comparable to the free flow of euro and capital, as well as free trade.

The "immigrant issues" in the EU is a stinking pile of BS.

It is in the US, too. Why are people coming to the US from Latin America. Because there are jobs for them here. The way to end this so-called problem in the US is to jail people who hire workers without papers.

This is like W saying that AQ attacked the US "because of our freedoms" when Osama, according to Sharia, warned the US that if they didn't stop killing Muslims in the Middle East, then Muslims would return the favor. This is hardly the only example of this BS.

The West creates a situation and then blames the victims when there is blowback.

It's the same in Dallas. Of course, if you kill minority people, some minority people will respond in kind.

Westerners are so full of themselves they just don't get it. This is beyond stupid.

Because there are jobs for them here? Unaccompanied minors and single moms with multiple kids coming for jobs or education? They are seeking relative safety and government education, more than jobs, but certainly jobs are needed once they are here. Old wives tale about jobs... maybe in the 70s or 80s when there were high paying and plentiful US jobs in mfr, maybe... now low paying service and construction which can be had in abundance in the developing countries themselves.